Supervisory bodies must be able to respond more quickly to problems in the healthcare ICT market. To this end, ACM, NZa and the Healthcare Institute want to set up a 'signaling table' together with the IGJ. This is one of the measures proposed by the agencies to improve the functioning of the healthcare ICT market. In addition, they want to stimulate the joint procurement of ICT, demand articulation and administrative knowledge level.
The healthcare IT market has its imperfections, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) noted in the 2022 Healthcare IT Market Action Plan. Due to the lack of sufficient open and fair competition, healthcare providers are at the mercy of IT suppliers. This can lead to too high prices, lower quality products and services and a lack of innovation. As such, according to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, poor healthcare IT market can be considered one of the reasons for the inadequate electronic data exchange and data availability in healthcare.
Vendor lock-in
Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM), the Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit (NZa) and the Zorginstituut Nederland come to the same conclusion in their report 'Sturing op kwaliteit en betaalbaarheid zorg-ict'. As main bottlenecks the three mention vendor lock-in and market power of the ict-suppliers. They also see international entry barriers for ict-suppliers. On the demand side, ACM, NZa and Zorginstituut see unfamiliarity with (healthcare) ICT and poor demand articulation. Healthcare providers are also hindered by high implementation costs in combination with low financial strength.
On the process side, ACM, NZa and the Healthcare Institute see a lack of regulation and oversight of healthcare IT as well as immature standards and a ditto standardization process.
Knowledge level
In the exploration, the three agencies provide the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport with several interventions to improve both market dynamics and the quality and affordability of healthcare IT. First, the three want to increase the level of knowledge among administrators and healthcare providers. Only then can care providers properly articulate their problems and wishes and are they able to act jointly when purchasing IT. Knowledge is also indispensable to have the conversation about the development of standards.
Signaling Table
In order to pick up problems around healthcare ICT at an early stage, there should be a signaling table, consisting of the ACM, the IGJ, the NZa and the Healthcare Institute. These signals serve as input for possible interventions in both the short and long term.
National planning
As an extension of demand bundling by healthcare providers, implementing organizations should establish a clear national planning in terms of ict requirements. This gives ict suppliers peace of mind, clarity and prioritization. Uniformity is also important in the area of standardization. Currently, different organizations are still involved in the development of standards. In the future, this can best be done by a national testing and validation platform, closely aligned with the legislative framework of the European Health Dataspace (EHDS).
International standards
In the long term, the aim is to fully adhere to open international standards. This measure should lower barriers to entry for foreign providers. This promotes competition, which is beneficial for the price and quality of healthcare IT products.
Feasibility
Only if this offers insufficient solace can VWS opt to tighten the supervision of the healthcare ICT market and impose criteria around quality, affordability and continuity of delivery of healthcare ICT. There is still a long way to go. In the exploration, ACM, NZa and Zorginstituut indicate that VWS may now first consider which measures it considers feasible and whether there are any unintended side effects.
This is an article by Dutch Health Hub. Want to keep up with all the news from the healthcare industry? Then take a look at the hub and sign up for the weekly newsletter.
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